[Balboa]

[quote=Coronita]

Well anecdotal story… I have a friend who works at a small biotech company. She’s on the administrative staff and they and support were all told to go back to the office starting next week…

However all the scientists and researchers…They are allowed to work remotely indefinitely.

Now this might seem a bit unfair, because it is. But you know why the company did this, right?

The company views the administrative staff as easily replaceable so they get treated like crap. And their philosophy is well if you quit go ahead we’ll just find a replacement.

However, when it comes to the scientist and engineers. It seems like they don’t want to fvck with them, because I guess if they said the same thing, the scientist and engineers would just walk across the street to a competitor.

Go figure.[/quote]

My employer provides tech-adjacent professional services and anyone who has agency and is aware of it is deciding for themselves whether to come back now that we’re “open” — I’ve been in a few days over the last two weeks and opposite me is a row of empty window offices. The lights are off and everybody’s home.

On the staff side, the standard is 3 days in the office, two from home. But if you look at the departments that are the worst to work in, it’s a different story. An entire high visibility/high responsibility/low status/low pay department is now 100% WFH as a Band-Aid for problems that can really only be solved by spending more money on people (and refraining from f*cking up vital systems via irreversible “upgrades” designed by people who don’t use said systems).

My org is experiencing challenges with recruitment and retention on both the professional and staff sides, though. All of our main competitors have offices within a mile of us/the ocean, which doesn’t help.

[Balboa]

[quote=Coronita][quote=Balboa][quote=Coronita]my primary home is currently insured with “American Modern Insurance”… Found cheaper than my previous allstate insurance

have you checked with costco? They offer home and auto, and at least with auto, it was very competitive.

I just switched my 3 of my cars From allstate to costco’s provider and for those 3 cars, my insurance has better coverage and the premium is lower by almost $600/year

The other two (old audi and miata) would have been cheaper at costco too, but i found out those two can be insured for really cheap by Hagerty as a classic car and so its like $350 for both of them per year with the max liability, collision, comprehensive,. and special provisions for parts write off worth more than the car itself…[/quote]

Costco is a good idea I never seems to have. I’ll definitely check it out since I’ll be cancelling my Progressive for auto after this.

I wish I was insuring a Miata![/quote]

Miata’s aren’t that expensive to have.
NB’s go for around $5-7k and pretty cheap to insure and pretty cheap to fix.

https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/d/san-diego-1999-mazda-miata-mx/7352900045.html%5B/quote%5D

It’s true. But I need an automatic (I know, I know) and those are harder to come by. Learning to drive stick should have been my pandemic project!

[Balboa]

[quote=sdrealtor]Do you have a kitchen with knotty pine cabinets? Asking for a friend[/quote]

Ha, nope. Nothing notable about them.

[Balboa]

[quote=teaboy]I got the lowest rate I could find at http://www.hippo.com
All online and so very easy for simple situations like yours & mine.

Been ok for 3 years now, but they keep jacking up the rate each year like every insurer so I may have to endure the hassle of shopping around again this month..
1st year.. $599
2nd year.. $731
3rd year.. $863
Next year.. $1063

tb
note: It’s that cheap cos i opt for a $10k deductible.[/quote]

Thanks! A friend also said they were happy with Hippo. I worry a bit because our house is old and hers is not. After getting cancelled by Prog/ASI, I did some more research and saw Reddit posts from industry people saying ASI is good if you’ve got a spotless new build but that they are will decline to underwrite ever for cosmetic issues. I think they actually sent someone out — noticed a lurker a month or so ago– who looked at the front of our house and said “Nah.”

So now I wonder how many other places are that choosy. It’s not like a tornado is going to come thru and they’ll be on the hook to replace my beat up redwood exterior but who knows.

[Balboa]

[quote=Coronita]my primary home is currently insured with “American Modern Insurance”… Found cheaper than my previous allstate insurance

have you checked with costco? They offer home and auto, and at least with auto, it was very competitive.

I just switched my 3 of my cars From allstate to costco’s provider and for those 3 cars, my insurance has better coverage and the premium is lower by almost $600/year

The other two (old audi and miata) would have been cheaper at costco too, but i found out those two can be insured for really cheap by Hagerty as a classic car and so its like $350 for both of them per year with the max liability, collision, comprehensive,. and special provisions for parts write off worth more than the car itself…[/quote]

Costco is a good idea I never seems to have. I’ll definitely check it out since I’ll be cancelling my Progressive for auto after this.

I wish I was insuring a Miata!

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[Balboa]

Updating in case anyone else ends up searching for pricing info.

We got 2 quotes in the 22-25k range. The caveat is the quotes include breaking up and removing all the hardscape, not just the pool work. I’d estimate 19-22k if we were just doing the pool, since the quote from 4 years ago was about 17k.

This includes demo, capping off utilities, filling and compacting, and grading done by licensed contractors with permits. The project would last around 2 weeks, weather permitting.

The pool is close enough to the house that it casts amazing patterns on the ceilings on that side of the house, which I’m going to miss.

[Balboa]

Thanks sdrealtor. It seems like even though we don’t want to build on the site, we may not be able to plant the way I thought we could, either — I was definitely hoping to add a tree or two back there. So many before-and-after shots show a pool and then some hardscape or fake turf in the shape of a pool. Not the look we’re going for… Ugh.

Starting to talk to some landscape designers and demo people. Hopefully we can make something less spartan than what I’ve seen online.

[Balboa]

I’m glad to hear everyone ended up ok! In a normal year I spread out my giving a bit more, but in 2020 the charitable donations were almost exclusively for food banks.

[Balboa]

sdrealtor, thanks for mentioning charitable giving and increasing tipping. I also hope people who are financially able are maintaining their memberships to [whatever] and supporting the people who normally provide them personal services (hair stylists, house cleaners, massage therapists etc.). These aren’t fees for service at this point if you haven’t had a haircut or gone to the gym, but direct investments in community members who have been disproportionately affected.

[Balboa]

I have faith in you! 🙂 It takes maybe 20 minutes once a month — I bang out the logins and purchases all in a row. The hardest part is keeping track of how how many times I’ve hit reload on Amazon.

It’s not a ton of money, but even if you hit the reqs half the time, you are still making about what a CD offers with the access of a checking account. My spouse and I each have an individual account at LMCU which effectively doubles the 15k limit.

[Balboa]

We have a couple of checking accounts at Lake Michigan Credit Union. There are some hoops to jump through, but they pay 3% on up to $15,000. Every month I have to log in four times, have $5 direct deposited from work, and reload my Amazon account with ten 50 cent purchases. A little annoying, but generally worth it.

[Balboa]

1. There is a difference between making the occasional inept or unrequited pass at someone — which is bound to happen occasionally — and behaving as if every new hire is on the menu.

2. That “OK, but brunch first” shirt? I am sort of shocked that anyone would assume it refers to sex, but sort of get that you’d think that if you are viewing women with a particular lens.

3. I am extremely angry about how much money and fame and social capital Louie acquired while hiding under the meta-ness of his work:

“I’m going to say this is about me because specificity is good for the bit, but we all know I’m talking about vast societal issues because I am woke and an ally of women.”

“Just kidding. It was all me. I’ve lost track, so when I apologized to a woman for pushing her into a bathroom, it was the wrong woman.”

Those stories about him — most of which did *not* involve consent, zk — were out there for years, but for years they could not be heard above his pilots and development deals, and his specials, and his shtick, and his repeated refusals to address the claims, and the refusals of his fellow male comedians turned serious interviewers to seriously consider what was being said about him.

I don’t know if there’s a line in the last 10 years of comedy that brought me more continuous joy than, “What about…what about Obama?” But whatever. I’ll get my laughs elsewhere.

[Author]

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